Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to ways to share content, more particularly, to sharing media content across television and a plurality of mobile devices.
Description of the Related Art
Although television has been around for a number of years, television watching has evolved over recent years. Watching television was and is a highly social experience with people physically gathering around the television for viewing major televised event, news, etc. Lately, increasing number of users bring their mobile devices with them when gathering around to watch the television. Oftentimes, these users use their mobile devices, while watching television, to consume content, which may or may not be related to the program being viewed by the group that is gathered together. Such content may include email content, social media updates or content that may not be shared publicly.
With the ubiquitous nature of the mobile computing devices, watching and sharing content with one another has taken on a whole new meaning. Traditionally, when a first user wishes to share content that he/she is watching with other users, he/she provides a link to the content in an email, in a social media stream, in a text message, etc., so that the other users may access the link to watch the shared content. The traditional way of sharing the content using links are asynchronous and lack directional specificity. In other words, the traditional way required a second user to wait for the link shared by a first user in order to access the content. It would be advantageous to be able to share content with other users in a novel way to make the television watching experience more enjoyable and enriching.
It is in this context that the embodiments of the invention arise.